The moral equivalency

"I saw a short video of Jeremy Bowen of the BBC interviewing an officer at Kfar Aza, one of the border towns which was overrun by Hamas terrorists. Mr Bowen was initially concerned about the victims but was quick to query the wisdom of an incursion into Gaza given the risk of civilian casualties. It is as if Israel is the loser in some cruel game, where the opponent – Hamas – can come in, murder, rape and kidnap civilians, but Israel is not allowed to take any responsive action because of the risk to civilians in Gaza." (Robert Festenstein, blog, Times of Israel)

Painful thoughts on the attacks on the Jewish state

October 13, 2023

I was aware of the physical frailties of old age—my parents lived to 88 and 89, my four grandparents late 80s and early 90s, and my great grandparents late 80s. I knew them all. I also knew my husband’s parents, grandmother and his step-grandparents all living to mid-80s and early 90s. Today is my brother-in-law’s 100th birthday. What I didn’t expect was this feeling of helplessness.

I didn’t expect to feel the promises of God’s mercy and caring to ring so hollow. After all, most of these dear ones of my past had lived through the Panic of 1893, the Spanish American War, WWI, The Spanish flu epidemic, the Great Depression, the scourge of polio, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I even called my Dad on 9/11 for some comfort. Maybe they felt as helpless as I do now, and never mentioned it?

Today I was reading Psalm 25 in my morning devotions. I thought about those beautiful words such as TRUST, TRUTH, SALVATION, MERCY, LOVE, GOODNESS, UPRIGHTNESS, FAITHFULNESS, PARDON, FRIENDSHIP, COVENANT and FORGIVENESS. I couldn’t help but think back to Saturday’s assault on civilians in Israel. Where was God? Where were our elected politicians, our counterintelligence, our high-tech smarties who can shut down any opinion about Covid or pronouns they don’t like, but couldn’t find “chatter” of killers of Jews? It was Nazis in the ghettos of the 1940s.

What happened to the “rules of war” and the lessons of WWII we heard about in high school and college?

Also, I can't help but think of the silence of our churches—not just about the Israeli/ HAMAS/ Hezbollah/ Iran situation, but my own church's failure to speak out or call a prayer meeting on ANY issue—social, economic or political—from Covid to abortion to local bond issues, to the border crisis to transgenderism. I suppose it's understandable with 35,000 “protestant” and “Bible only” groups many of whom have split on secular issues, including slavery and feminism. It is still an eerie silence for anyone who reads the paper or watches the evening news. It’s possible in the 1930s we didn’t know about the Soviets starving the Kulaks or the Nazis invading Poland and killing Jews until it was too late. Today we have HAMAS uploading their crimes in real time on the internet for all to see. Today we know the U.S. returned $6 billion to Iran who has sworn death to Israel. We've bought their oil for untold billions. We funded this!

There’s an ugly dividing waste land that runs through our wealthy, educated metropolitan congregations. The same Christians who support abortion and “a woman’s right to choose,” sanctuary cities, open borders, climate change laws that hurt the poorest economies, demonization of half of America’s voters and the sexual mutilation of children in the LGBTQ spectrum, also have been willing to excuse over the years Palestinians and deny that the Islamic hatred and beliefs about Israel’s existence is a real threat to Jews and the U.S. It’s the elephant in the sanctuary. Right here in Columbus (specifically 2021, 2014 and this week) there were large demonstrations in support of Palestine and against Israel. Was anything said—prayer—discussion? Is there a direct line from our silence to beheading babies and shooting the elderly at bus stops?

If our churches can’t even object to the Governor or Board of Health about violations of our religious rights in 2020 and 2021 during the lockdowns, how can I even suggest we have the moral authority and strength to say anything about the Russia Ukraine war, or the tribal warfare in South Sudan among Christians, or the Ethiopian crisis, or the invasion by millions at our Southern border, or HAMAS attacking civilians?

Well, I do suggest it. Can I sit through one more Bible study or sermon or hymn and not be sickened by our silence, and my own feeling of weakness while we dither about hiring women pastors (an issue from the 1970s) or how many millions we can raise to keep our buildings up to date?

Mike Huckabee on moral equivalency

 "I caught Brit Hume on Fox News yesterday, making the observation that watching the revolting cheering of the anti-Semitic carnage in Israel has been clarifying, like turning over a rock and discovering all kinds of disgusting moral equivalencies. He said we’re learning that some people we thought just had slightly unusual or “exotic” views actually have quite astonishing views.

That’s a good point, except the insane and violent extremism of the modern left wasn’t a shock to some of us, who’ve been warning about it for years.

For people who haven’t been raised right, who have been failed by the education system and don’t know what morality is, here’s a clue: There is no “moral equivalency” between terrorists who murder, torture and rape innocent people and their victims."

Billions to Iran

Biden/Obama tried to destroy our fossil fuel industry while paying Iran billions for oil--which in turn funds the alliance of Gaza, Tehran and Moscow. He tries to hide his duplicity by attacking half the American voters for supporting Trump, so you won't notice what's going on. And meanwhile, at the gas pump in the days to come and Iran uses its leverage, keep that in mind. Trump made us energy independent.

Lulled by a false sense of security . . .

"The world is a harsh and violent place. Sometimes we forget that and must be reminded. On October 6, Israel in outward appearance resembled a normal country. The military threat from its Arab neighbors had long been reduced to manageable levels. A high-tech boom had generated unprecedented prosperity. Carefree young people danced until morning in the night spots of Tel Aviv. Israelis felt safe enough to invest their considerable energies on sterile political controversies, American-style. These mostly swirled around the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a sometimes Trumpian figure, who, like Trump, inspired wild apocalyptic predictions and acts of symbolic resistance."

And then came Saturday, October 7, a holiday . . . Was Israel Lulled Into a False Sense of Security? | City Journal (city-journal.org)

Biden can't protect Israel's borders or Ukraine's borders or ours

"THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS: NEW DATA AND TESTIMONY SHOW HOW THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OPENED THE SOUTHWEST BORDER AND ABANDONED INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT"

Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement

• Between January 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023, there were over 5 million illegal alien encounters. Of these encounters, at least 2,464,424 had no confirmed departure from the United States.
• During the same period, DHS released at least 2,148,738 illegal aliens into the United States.
• Only 5,993 illegal aliens encountered at the southwest border and placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge were actually removed from the United States during this time.
• A mere six percent of illegal aliens released into the United States were even screened for fear of persecution for purposes of asylum.
• As of March 2023, DHS had removed only 874 of the illegal aliens found to have a credible fear of persecution and whose claims were adjudicated on the merits and denied by an immigration judge.
• An additional 205,473 aliens were released into the country through illegal categorical parole programs.

2023-10-09-New Data and Testimony Show How the Biden Administration Opened the Southwest Border and Abandoned Interior Enforcement.pdf (dropbox.com)

Let me count the ways the Biden regime is a threat to the whole world

1) Used a pandemic to take back the White House using fear, lies and the deep state.

2) Biden bug-out from Afghanistan left behind billions of military weapons and technology,
3) which enriched the Taliban and
4) demoralized our troops,
5) which in turn sent a message to Putin that Biden is a paper tiger controlled by unnamed political forces,
6) which led to the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian people,
7) and threatened all of Europe.
8) Then he gave a 6 billion dollar deal to Iran for "humanitarian aid"
9) a country which has sworn to destroy Israel,*
10) which in turn funded an invasion of Israel's borders (why not since Biden has proven he can't protect our own borders).

I'm a former Democrat. I know the game. I was fooled too. Democrats are the party of the KKK and Jim Crow, the party that coaxes women into killing the next generation while bringing in outsiders to take their place, and then evangelizes them for careers in government and business. The party that can't define "woman" will be happy to send their sons and daughters into another war.

Democrats never waste a crisis. They used the Covid crisis to destabilize our economy, our schools, our health system, our military, and with the help of Big Pharma and Big Tech, our constitutional government putting in place a puppet regime worse than any totalitarian rule in modern times.

So many Democrats have been red-pilled** by their party's lust for power and insane treatment of Trump and they are looking anywhere for a political home (probably not to the weak, sniveling Republicans). They need to open their eyes and assess the damage. Yes, Biden has betrayed Israel, but he betrayed us first.

*"In Tehran yesterday [Oct. 7], members of Parliament chanted, “Death to Israel.” The Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh made a televised speech warning Arab countries that Israel could not protect them—an apparent threat against countries that had signed the Abraham Accords, such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which has been considering normalizing ties with Israel. Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s armed wing, said that his group’s action would at last put an end to Israeli air raids against Iranian and Hezbollah assets in Syria." (The Atlantic, Oct. 8, 2023)

** dramatically transformed, especially by introducing them to a new and typically disturbing understanding of the true nature of a particular situation

Mask research by the CDC--inaccurate

"The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is widely cited but not externally peer-reviewed, serially exaggerated the evidence for mask-wearing among 77 such outside studies it published, according to an independent review by epidemiologists at the University of California San Francisco, the system's health sciences campus.

Just 14% of MMWR studies reached statistical significance and 30% actually studied mask effectiveness. Yet three-quarters concluded that masks were effective, authors Tracy Beth Hoeg, Alyson Haslam and Vinay Prasad wrote in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Medicine, the official journal of a consortium of five associations in academic internal medicine.

 
None of the 77 was randomized, the strongest form of evidence, and just one study each "used causal language appropriately" ("particle filtration on mannequins") or "cited conflicting evidence" (mostly about influenza), they wrote. "The level of evidence generated was low and the conclusions were most often unsupported by the data." "

This is not called science it's called an agenda.

CDC repeatedly misrepresents mask research, mask mandates worsen depression: studies | Just The News

Ellsworth Wareham gives advice on nutrition and long life

https://youtu.be/FX58PyQwrcI?si=3hYjhqTW0FSe6SI9

He was 98 when he made this video, but lived to be over 104.  He's got some good advice on heart disease (his cholesterol was 117) and being a vegan, but most people wouldn't find it acceptable.  I came across this reading about Blue Zones. 

From Wikipedia: Ellsworth Edwin Wareham (October 3, 1914 – December 15, 2018)^[1][2] was an American cardiothoracic surgeon and centenarian from Loma Linda, California who promoted the health benefits of plant-based nutrition.^[3][4]

Queer Theory is big in anthropology

It's shocking how stupid educated people can be. Maybe it's because women outnumber men in college degrees (since 2008). And you can't compromise with them. It's gone way beyond using the correct pronoun with a colleague or not dead naming people, now they must foist their insane beliefs on people dead for thousands of years. We lost the battle when we agreed to use the word "gender" as a biological thing instead of a sick fantasy. Leftists have created a new tower of Babel in attempting to be god. It won't end well.

"We used to say there’s sex, and gender. Sex is biological, and gender is not. Then it’s no, you can no longer talk about sex. Sex and gender are one, and separating the two makes you a transphobe, when of course it doesn’t. In anthropology and many topics, the goalposts are continuously moved. And, because of that, we need to stand up and say, “I’m not moving from my place unless there’s good scientific evidence that my place is wrong.” And I don’t think there is good scientific evidence that there are more than two sexes." Elizabeth Weiss, a professor of anthropology at San José State University, whose panel discussion for the November Toronto conference was deep-sixed as not being "settled science." https://www.city-journal.org/article/dis-empaneled?

There is much to respond to in this portion of AAA’s statement. First, it’s ironic for the organization to accuse scientists of committing the “cardinal sin” of “assuming the truth” of something, and then to justify cancelling those scientists’ panel on the grounds that the panelists refuse to accept purportedly “settled science.” Second, the panel was organized to discuss biological sex (i.e., the biology of males and females), not “gender roles”; pivoting from discussions of basic biology to murkier debates about sex-related social roles and expectations is a common tactic of gender ideologues. Third, the AAA’s argument that a person’s “gender role” might not “align neatly” with his or her reproductive anatomy implies the existence of normative behaviors for members of each sex. Indeed, this is a central tenet of gender ideology that many people dispute and warrants the kind of discussion the panel intended to provide.  (Colin Wright, author of the CJ article)

More on Issue one and the Ohio Constitution

Planned Parenthood, supported primarily by Democrats/Progressives, is a cash only lucrative business for abortion and has a special program (funded by Warren Buffet) for poor and minority women to kill their babies. Its other programs are supported by the government, including contraception. Among the young, contraception has a high failure rate and thus they create a market for the abortions. Clever.

Abby Johnson, a former PP employee, says the Ohio bill (Issue 1) to enshrine abortion in Ohio's constitution has all the earmarks of having been drafted by Planned Parenthood. The slick ads we're seeing on TV are manipulative and contain inaccurate information. (Thepublicsquare.com podcast, 60)

The abortion battle in Ohio

I've been watching all the classy pro-abortion ads on TV (trying to enshrine abortion up to the day of birth in our Ohio Constitution). Excellent production values and heart-rending stories. Mega doses of outside money. It has caused me to wonder about all the rights and choices the babies being aborted won't have in their future.

No, women will still be able to get treatment for miscarriages.

No, it will not affect removing a deceased unborn child.

When a woman's life is at risk and the baby is pre-term, medical intervention can possibly save both.

Ectopic pregnancy (embryo implants outside the uterus) interventions are still necessary.  This is not an abortion.

Don't forget, abortion is the direct and intentional killing of a baby in the womb.  In the past, both parties were champions of the weak and helpless.

What Jesus never said

 

Welfare statistics for 2023 in U.S.

 50 Important Welfare Statistics for 2023 | Lexington Law

There were 70 million people on the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s welfare programs in the United States in 2021 which includes SNAP, housing assistance, unemployment programs and Medicaid. It is higher than military spending. It is estimated welfare spending in 2023 will account for around 14 percent of the federal budget.

How and why we lost confidence in the public health system

"In the end, it took some grandstanding Republicans in Congress to break the logjam of information. In July 2023, the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a trove of emails, text messages, and other interactions between Fauci, Collins, other health officials, and leading virus experts. Other messages were leaked to independent reporters, including Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger. These communications reveal a stunning contrast between those experts’ confident public statements and the doubts and fears they expressed privately.

In dozens of interviews, dating to the start of the pandemic, Fauci, Collins, and others expressed bland assurances that the new virus must have spilled into the human population from a wild animal. The idea that the Wuhan Institute might have been involved was dismissed as “just a conspiracy theory,” in Fauci’s words. But the recently disclosed communications reveal that behind the scenes, many of the world’s top virologists worried that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had leaked from the Wuhan lab. Worse, some feared that its terrifying transmissibility might be due to genetic manipulation."

The Covid Cover-up | City Journal (city-journal.org)

Hurricane Ophelia and Robbie Robertson

AI generated story: "Tropical Storm Ophelia formed on Friday afternoon [September 22, 2023] and quickly strengthened close to hurricane strength1. The storm is set to drench the East Coast this weekend, bringing heavy rain in addition to strong gusty winds, rough surf, and coastal flooding1. Tropical storm warnings are in effect from Cape Fear, N.C., to the Delaware-Maryland border on the Delmarva Peninsula, with storm surge warnings blanketing a similar area1.

The National Hurricane Center reported that tropical storm conditions have the possibility of developing over portions of the U.S. southeast and mid-Atlantic coasts2. The storm will bring danger of life-threatening storm surge, high surf, and rip currents to the mid-Atlantic3. More than 7 million people are under tropical storm warnings as of Friday afternoon3.

Please stay safe and follow the instructions of local authorities."

One of my favorites, Ophelia by The Band. If I had a middle age crush, it was Robbie Robertson. https://youtu.be/xe7y7ByOrwQ?si=eSkqMRUltdO5moMY  He died in August, 2023. Robbie Robertson, guitarist and songwriter of The Band, dead at 80 - YouTube

https://youtu.be/ph1GU1qQ1zQ?si=r1-F8EsESUykKZWm  The Weight.

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

I recently came across the podcast, "The illusion of Consensus" with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Rav Arora. Ep. 13 was an interview with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty whose outstanding career and service as a bio-ethicist at UC Irvine was torpedoed by the censorship of Big Tech and Big Pharma on behalf of the Biden Administration. He's written a book in his "free time," The New Abnormal." The unholy alliance of (1) public health, (2) digital technologies of surveillance and control, and (3) the police powers of the state, the Biomedical Security State. What surprised me was he took a look back to a 1989 conference where the enemy in a pandemic changed from the virus or pathogen to the whole human population who could be vectors. The conference was organized/planned by Dr. Fauci! He's written about that at Substack. He's one of the plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden. It will probably go to the Supreme Court.

The Illusion of Consensus: Episode 13: Dr. Aaron Kheriaty On The Violation Of Bioethical Principles During The Covid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Dr. Fauci's Amnesia - by Aaron Kheriaty, MD (substack.com)

The New Abnormal: A Review (catholicexchange.com)

The 1950 census, Forreston, Illionois

I recently received a notice from Family Search about the 1950 U.S. census. So, I looked at my mother, p. 27--interesting to see the details from 1950--names of our neighbors, their kids, professions etc. I remember so many of these people. I didn't know our street had a name! However, my brother and I weren't on the list (we were 10 and 8), so I moved to the next page. No, we weren't there. Then I went backwards and there we were on p. 26 not attached to a family (at least not that I could discern). Maybe the paging goes down instead of up?  I also noticed that in 1950 49.51% of women over 14 were married, so I checked for current data, and found that in 2022 49.9% of women over 15 are married. When I looked at the 1920 census for my grandfather, I see that young children (under 3 or 4) also were listed with months.  My aunt Muriel was 2 and 11 months. That wasn't done for older children.

Thomas Sowell on famous American Racists

 Thomas Sowell TV provides a lecture on famous American racists, most of whom were academics, economists, socialists, journalists, progressives and leftists, just like today. https://youtu.be/Cbq145xnaSs?si=hKO--kj3WU6fXKeT

Edward A. Ross, Roscoe Pound, Francis A. Walker, Richard T. Ely, Madison Grant, George Horace Lorimer, George Creel, H.L. Menken, H. G. Wells, and Jack London.

Bidenflation and Trump

The numbers for household median income since the pandemic illustrate how American families have lost ground: Income in the United States: 2022 (census.gov)  Table A-2

• 2019: $78,250
• 2020: $76,660 ($1,590 below 2019)
• 2021: $76,330 ($1,920 below 2019)
• 2022: $74,580 ($3,670 below 2019)

Although I have nothing good to say about Biden, I think he's the biggest criminal ever to live in the White House, Trump made mistakes too with the pandemic. I think he, along with everyone else, was totally unprepared, because how would he know? It's not encountered in business. However, he's a good judge of character--usually trusts his gut.

 
1) He should have let Fauci go as soon as he noticed his fascist tendencies, double speak and switcheroo speechifying.

 
2) He should have made sure his own advisors he put on that Covid advisory group were able to have their say.

 
3) Even if he was unfamiliar with the concept of peer-reviewed scientific research, I'm sure someone told him that those speaking for the CDC and Big Pharma could be balanced by outstanding researchers who were advocating for better treatment options and not just an experimental "vaccine" begun after the disease had already spread.

 
4) As a businessman familiar with the cut-throat capitalist model, Trump should have sniffed out the demonization, deplatforming, and cancel culture methods of the Democrat party and figured out they'd use it to their advantage in the election.

5) Trump was failed by his advisors and those he selected to be close to him or his vanity prevented him from listening. If ordinary non-scientific, non-political citizens figure out this was as much ideological as viral, then he should have also. If he wants our vote in 2024, he'll have to do a better job in that department.

Now in addition to the numbers above listed for household income one has to add to those losses, what it is costing every household to bring into our country 230,000 border jumpers each month from many nations with many languages and cultures--Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Mexico, China, Russian, Ukraine and India. Those expenses are local--schools, emergency housing, benefits, more police, displacement of local low-income citizens, etc. If Trump can't convince the Republicans to get off their butts and do something, then he should step aside and let someone else do the job. Having been a Democrat for 40 years, I am still shocked at the lazy, good for nothing Republicans who can't agree on where to do lunch, let alone legislation, that we elect year after year.

Your thoughts? I'm running out.

The cost of natural disasters compared to . . .what?

"Since 1980, billion-dollar natural disasters have resulted in nearly 16,000 deaths and cost $2.5 trillion (after adjusting for inflation). "

I haven't checked this USAFacts story. It's probably OK, but is the intent to cause fear and blame, with the aim of taxing you more for a non-existent climate change threat?

16,000 deaths in 43 years? 2022 had 466 deaths from natural disasters--cyclones, fires, earthquakes, blizzards and cold waves, floods, etc., but 42,795 traffic fatalities. Technology and warning systems have drastically reduced dangers from disasters as has reduced poverty. 2.8 million Americans die of obesity related diseases, and 80% of the Covid deaths were due to weight related problems.

 
100 years ago this natural disaster figure would have been in the thousands with a smaller population. If it weren't for bad environmental policies established by federal and state governments in the 80s and 90s, the wildfire problems would go away. A lot of hurricane damage costs and deaths could be reduced if the population didn't want to build in risky, beautiful places--especially the wealthy. Denying people government insurance might reduce that.

2020 Income Taxes, updated

I still see a lot of "interesting" interpretations of tax rates, percentages, quintiles, etc., and of course, greed. I admit, the top 1% made out well with the lockdowns and pandemic in 2021 and 2022. Probably own a lot of stock in pharmaceuticals. And with new war expenses, and Biden shoveling all he can to Zalenskyy anyone invested in war materiel is doing well. But here's the latest I could find on 2020, the last full year of Trump's term.

 
"Average tax rates for all income groups remained lower in 2020, three years after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, than they were in 2017 prior to the reform.

In 2020, taxpayers filed 157.5 million tax returns, reported earning nearly $12.5 trillion in adjusted gross income (AGI), and paid $1.7 trillion in individual income taxes.

The average income tax rate in 2020 was 13.6 percent. The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid a 25.99 percent average rate, more than eight times higher than the 3.1 percent average rate paid by the bottom half of taxpayers.

The top 1 percent’s income share rose from 20.1 percent in 2019 to 22.2 percent in 2020 and its share of federal income taxes paid rose from 38.8 percent to 42.3 percent.

The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.7 percent of all federal individual income taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.3 percent.

The 2020 figures include pandemic-related tax items such as the non-refundable part of the first two rounds of Recovery Rebates and the $10,200 unemployment compensation exclusion."

Who Pays Federal Income Taxes? | IRS Federal Income Tax Data, 2023 (taxfoundation.org)

Fall Fest at UALC

Our church had a party to welcome autumn and invited the neighbors. We didn't go--it's difficult for us to stand for long periods of time, but it sounds like everyone had a good time on September 17. Here's Becki Bork's note:

"We give thanks and praise to God for a wonderful Fall Fest! The weather was perfect and the Mill Run property was filled with people both from the congregation and the surrounding community! Kids were bouncing on inflatables, running through a mountain of bubbles, making and flying kites, playing miniature golf; adults filled the pickleball courts and euchre tables in friendly competition; all ages were enjoying popcorn, cotton candy and sno-cones, and many took time to sit down for dinner from the food trucks, talking with friends and meeting new people. It was a beautiful time of being a welcoming Oasis. Praise God! "

Remember Joe's promises about the pandemic control

Reminder: The pandemic killed nearly 1 million Americans in 2020-2021 according to the CDC. "Tragically and remarkably, a majority of those deaths happened after we announced the authorization of COVID vaccines, which means that they were particularly concentrated in 2021." (Atlantic, March 2022)

During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden blamed the pandemic's spread on President Trump's poor leadership, and denied that the vaccine he was fast tracking could be worthwhile if Trump was behind it. He said he had a plan to stop the spread. After Biden was in office, more people died from the virus in his first 10 months after the vaccine (which had great compliance the first year) than in 2020 before the vaccine, plus he became a dictator about using it, demanding it for federal employees (the rest of us were stuck with our governors' decrees).

 
No one ever holds old Joe accountable for his lies or his promises or his business crimes or his sexual fantasies about children.

Who wrote the letter to the Ephesians

 Recently I heard a Bible discussion where the speaker remarked that "scholars believe Paul wasn't the author of Ephesians, that it was someone, a disciple perhaps, who worked closely with him."  She didn't suggest an alternative but just went on with the examination of author, audience, culture and context. Although it's not an unusual theory (it's even in the preface of my NRSV that way), I suspect "higher criticism."  I no longer keep any of those books on my shelves, but I still have my grandfather's Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed (1910), and since it's primarily an 18th and 19th century scholarly exercise, I decided to take a look.  Sure enough, there it was, however the author pretty much debunked it.  In a nutshell, higher criticism denies the supernatural nature of scripture, particularly the Old Testament, and develops theories for anything it can't understand. It's hard to believe that any of these "scholar" were believers. There were hints of this in the 17th century, but the Germans really ran with it in the 19th century, and pretty much split seminaries and denominations.  The article I found was very long, but here's the essence.  I underlined the most simple and easy to understand.  It's sort of like the theory that someone else wrote Shakespeare, but he sure was good at it.

"Objections to the genuineness of Ephesians have been urged since the early part of the 19th century. The influence of Schleiermacher, whose pupil Leonhard Usteri in his Entwickelung der paulinischen Lehrbegriffs (1824) expressed strong doubts as to Ephesians, carried weight. He held that Tychicus was the author. De Wette first (1826) doubted, then (1843) denied that the epistle was by Paul. The chief attack came, however, from Baur (1845) and his colleagues of the Tübingen school. Against the genuineness have appeared Ewald, Renan, Hausrath, Hilgenfeld, Ritschl, Pfleiderer, Weizsäcker, Holtzmann, von Soden, Schmiedel, von Dobschütz and many others. On the other hand, the epistle has been defended by Bleek, Neander, Reuss, B. Weiss, Meyer, Sabatier, Lightfoot, Hort, Sanday, Bacon, Jülicher, Harnack, Zahn and many others. In recent years a tendency has been apparent among critics to accept Ephesians as a genuine work of Paul. This has followed the somewhat stronger reaction in favour of Colossians.

Before speaking of the more fundamental grounds urged for the rejection of Ephesians, we may look at various points of detail which are of less significance.

(1) The style has unquestionably a slow and lumbering movement, in marked contrast with the quick effectiveness of Romans and Galatians. The sentences are much longer and less vivacious, as any one can see by a superficial examination. But nevertheless there are parts of the earlier epistles where the same tendency appears (e.g. Rom. iii. 23-26), and on the whole the style shows Paul’s familiar traits. (2) The vocabulary is said to be peculiar. But it can be shown to be no more so than that of Galatians (Zahn, Einleitung, i. pp. 365 ff.). On the other hand, some words characteristic of Paul’s use appear (notably διό, five times), and the most recent and careful investigation of Paul’s vocabulary (Nägeli, Wortschatz der paulinischen Briefe, 1905) concludes that the evidence speaks for Pauline authorship. (3) Certain phrases have aroused suspicion, for instance, “the devil” (vi. 11, instead of Paul’s usual term “Satan”); “his holy apostles and prophets” (iii. 5, as smacking of later fulsomeness); “I Paul” (iii. 1); “unto me, who am less than the least of all the saints” (iii. 8, as exaggerated). But these cases, when properly understood and calmly viewed, do not carry conviction against the epistle. (4) The relation of Ephesians to Colossians would be a serious difficulty only if Colossians were held to be not by Paul. Those who hold to the genuineness of Colossians find it easier to explain the resemblances as the product of the free working of the same mind, than as due to a deliberate imitator. Holtzmann’s elaborate and very ingenious theory (1872) that Colossians has been expanded, on the basis of a shorter letter of Paul, by the same later hand which had previously written the whole of Ephesians, has not met with favour from recent scholars.

But the more serious difficulties which to many minds still stand in the way of the acceptance of the epistle have come from the developed phase of Pauline theology which it shows, and from the general background and atmosphere of the underlying system of thought, in which the absence of the well-known earlier controversies is remarkable, while some things suggest the thought of John and a later age. Among the most important points in which the ideas and implications of Ephesians suggest an authorship and a period other than that of Paul are the following:

(a) The union of Gentiles and Jews in one body is already accomplished. (b) The Christology is more advanced, uses Alexandrian terms, and suggests the ideas of the Gospel of John. (c) The conception of the Church as the body of Christ is new. (d) There is said to be a general softening of Pauline thought in the direction of the Christianity of the 2nd century, while very many characteristic ideas of the earlier epistles are absent.

With regard to the changed state of affairs in the Church, it must be said that this can be a conclusive argument only to one who holds the view of the Tübingen scholars, that the Apostolic Age was all of a piece and was dominated solely by one controversy. The change in the situation is surely not greater than can be imagined within the lifetime of Paul. That the epistle implies as already existent a developed system of Gnostic thought such as only came into being in the 2nd century is not true, and such a date is excluded by the external evidence. As to the other points, the question is, whether the admittedly new phase of Paul’s theological thought is so different from his earlier system as to be incompatible with it. In answering this question different minds will differ. But it must remain possible that contact with new scenes and persons, and especially such controversial necessities as are exemplified in Colossians, stimulated Paul to work out more fully, under the influence of Alexandrian categories, lines of thought of which the germs and origins must be admitted to have been present in earlier epistles. It cannot be maintained that the ideas of Ephesians directly contradict either in formulation or in tendency the thought of the earlier epistles. Moreover, if Colossians be accepted as Pauline (and among other strong reasons the unquestionable genuineness of the epistle to Philemon renders it extremely difficult not to accept it), the chief matters of this more advanced Christian thought are fully legitimated for Paul.

On the other hand, the characteristics of the thought in Ephesians give some strong evidence confirmatory of the epistle’s own claim to be by Paul. (a) The writer of Eph. ii. 11-22 was a Jew, not less proud of his race than was the writer of Rom. ix.-xi. or of Phil. iii. 4 ff. (b) The centre in all the theology of the epistle is the idea of redemption. The use of Alexandrian categories is wholly governed by this interest. (c) The epistle shows the same panoramic, pictorial, dramatic conception of Christian truth which is everywhere characteristic of Paul. (d) The most fundamental elements in the system of thought do not differ from those of the earlier epistles.

The view which denies the Pauline authorship of Ephesians has to suppose the existence of a great literary artist and profound theologian, able to write an epistle worthy of Paul at his best, who, without betraying any recognizable motive, presented to the world in the name of Paul an imitation of Colossians, incredibly laborious and yet superior to the original in literary workmanship and power of thought, and bearing every appearance of earnest sincerity. It must further be supposed that the name and the very existence of this genius were totally forgotten in Christian circles fifty years after he wrote. The balance of evidence seems to lie on the side of the genuineness of the Epistle.

If Ephesians was written by Paul, it was during the period of his imprisonment, either at Caesarea or at Rome (iii. 1, iv. 1, vi. 20). At very nearly the same time he must have written Colossians and Philemon; all three were sent by Tychicus. There is no strong reason for holding that the three were written from Caesarea. For Rome speaks the greater probability of the metropolis as the place in which a fugitive slave would try to hide himself, the impression given in Colossians of possible opportunity for active mission work (Col. iv. 3, 4; cf. Acts xxviii. 30, 31), the fact that Philippians, which in a measure belongs to the same group, was pretty certainly written from Rome. As to the Christians addressed, they are evidently converts from heathenism (ii. 1, 11-13, 17 f., iii. 1, iv. 17); but they are not merely Gentile Christians at large, for Tychicus carries the letter to them, Paul has some knowledge of their special circumstances (i. 15), and they are explicitly distinguished from “all the saints” (iii. 18, vi. 18). We may most naturally think of them as the members of the churches of Asia. The letter is very likely referred to in Col. iv. 16, although this theory is not wholly free from difficulties."

Back Alley Abortions

Although I've known for 50 years that the number of "back alley abortions" was a lie multiplied many times over and created by pro-abortion feminists, I didn't know the actual figures. Came across it today in a Fact Sheet on the Dobbs V. Jackson case.

"Fears about thousands of women dying from back-alley abortions should abortion laws return to the states have been proven to be unfounded, as the claims that thousands of women were dying from illegal abortions at the time of Roe were made up for political purposes. The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a chief advocate for legalizing abortion, said he and his fellow advocates invented the "nice, round shocking figure" of "5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year" from illegal abortions.2 While any death is a tragedy, the number of deaths from “back alley” abortions do not approach these numbers. In 1966, before the first state legalized abortion, 120 mothers died from abortion.3 In 1972, when abortion was still illegal in 80 percent of the country, the number dropped to 39 maternal deaths from abortion.4

 
https://www.usccb.org/resources/dobbs-fact-sheet.pdf (use this for checking numbered references)

Short comings of the pharmaceutical industry

"Since the beginning of COVID-19, we can list the following methods of information manipulation which have been used: falsified clinical trials and inaccessible data; fake or conflict-of-interest studies; concealment of vaccines' short-term side effects and total lack of knowledge of the long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccination; doubtful composition of vaccines; inadequate testing methods; governments and international organizations under conflicts of interest; bribed physicians; the denigration of renowned scientists; the banning of all alternative effective treatments; unscientific and liberticidal social methods; government use of behavior modification and social engineering techniques to impose confinements, masks, and vaccine acceptance; scientific censorship by the media."  The pharmaceutical industry is dangerous to health. Further proof with COVID-19 - PubMed (nih.gov)

The article is full text free. This is from the abstract. But even if you're crazy about Moderna or Pfizer, even if you've faithfully had all the boosters and you loved Dr. Fauci, you can't deny these statements. All have been reported even in the media I don't trust.

What pay gap?

The pay gap, if you can call it that, is about a penny when all of life choices are considered. Men and women are different and have different goals. If a woman wants to shape eyebrows and not stand in the sun and be a mason wearing high top boots, then we shouldn't expect their pay to be the same. But there are women (and some men) who earn a living in the government and academe manipulating the statistics. I blogged about this in 2004 during the Bush administration, and even then there was no "gap" but there was gaslighting. When my children were young, I wasn't employed for 10 years. Why in the name of fairness should I have demanded the same pay as a man or woman who had been drawing a paycheck all those years? Their time and effort should count for something! And when I did go back to work, it was part time.

5 Myths to Bust About the Gender Pay Gap | Independent Women's Forum (iwf.org)

DeVos, Du Bois and Biden da boss

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote about W.E.B. Du Bois, “One idea he insistently taught was that black people have been kept in oppression and deprivation by a poisonous fog of lies… " And so the Democrat party media continue the racist tradition with Wokeism. 

Remember when Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education under Trump, tried to honor W.E.B. Du Bois as an educator? His name appeared as DeBois in the text, and the media (beginning probably with Twitter) went crazy. Two people with a European De Du D in their surname indicating a connection to nobility or the land in the same sentence. The media were already calling her racist because she wanted parents to have a choice in schools, something I think Du Bois would have approved of. But oh horror! De instead of a Du!!! It's a horrible microaggression in the Trump administration. At least she didn't pronounce his name the French way (Bwa meaning wood) using the English Bois (like in Boise without the e). And I think her name Vos is pronounced Vahs, so I usually get that wrong. Not sure who I'm offending. The point being, the media had to go woke, if it was a Trump cabinet member. Put the worst possible slant on names not commonly found in American English. 

And shouldn't we all speak clearly like Joe Biden who said " Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black," to a black radio host during the 2020 campaign.

And there was light, book club selection September 11

 For book club this month I'm reading Jon Meacham's "And there was light; Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle." (Random House, 2022) By page 140 I was noticing a subtle hint of 21st century moral superiority and self- righteousness in the author's tone.  I grabbed a second Lincoln book from my personal library, Ronald White, Jr.'s "A. Lincoln; a biography." (Random House, 2009) They are both massive books (676 pp. and 796 pp.) The bibliographies/notes sections are so huge and so different, it's almost impossible to check one against the other. I'm supplementing my reading with Paul Johnson's "A History of the American People," pts 3 and 4, which covers 1815-1870, which emphasizes links to England's history and our country's religious beliefs and formation. I was a little fuzzy on the Mexican War and the Nebraska-Kansas problem.

The bibliographies are incredibly difficult, but here are some rough, ballpark stats: Meacham cites Steven Douglas 27 times, White 106 times; Meacham cites Frederick Douglass 58 times, White 30 times. Both men were important, but for telling the story of pre-Civil War America and what Americans thought and believed, Steven Douglas is a better example of the pro-slavery forces Lincoln was up against convincing Americans (many of whom had never seen a black man or a slave) to stop the expansion and then ending slavery.

I've come away from this reading experience with a suspicion that all great heroes of our history will never pass muster because of the 21st century's race problems. They won't survive the Obama presidency and the George Floyd riots which were far more damaging to our national fabric than January 6 riot. Statues will continue to be torn down and schools renamed. 

 In this era of abortion up to the day of birth, maiming children in sex change surgeries, border sex trafficking, and energy and welfare policies that hurt the poor some of our scholars, publishers and activists find 21st c. American morals and ethics superior to the 19th and 18th centuries!

Although White never hides Lincoln's failures, he faithfully follows through on an outstanding study of his growth, integrity, and complexity, as well as his evolution in religious values and struggles. Plus, he's readable. Meacham does say good things about Lincoln but always "balances" with what his detractors from 3 centuries had to say. Cherry pickers for CRT classes will love it. Does Lincoln's passion for saving the country and destroying slavery have to be explained through a (failed) 21st century racialist lens?

I noticed the similarities to what we are going through today. In passionate love for their country, Lincoln and Trump are pretty well matched, regardless of what you think of their causes. And I can't think of any president more vilified than Lincoln except Trump. Lincoln was ridiculed, damned, hated with a passion, lied about, and feared just like Trump is today. There was more than one assassination attempt. The Republican party was in its infancy in 1860, lively and eager, and in its dotage in 2016 and 2020, careless and timid. The Democrats were racists then and they are racists now. The stakes were different, but slavery was embedded in every aspect of American life, even for northerners. The danger from non-elected entities in the deep state are as stubbornly embedded in our way of life as slavery was then. The desire to control others' lives it still with us today. To challenge the deep state today is as dangerous as challenging slavery was then. And abortion, although not a cause for Trump, is OUR moral issue overshadowing all other events and decisions just as slavery was in 1830-1860.

Trinity Forum Conversations | Lincoln in Private: Leadership Behind Closed Doors with Ron C. White (transistor.fm)

Abraham Lincoln's Diary on Apple Podcasts

Biden's Gestapo tactics, Enrique Tarrio

The Gestapo tactics of the Biden Administration are out of control: " [Enrique] Tarrio’s 22-year-long sentence is also significantly longer than if you light someone on fire in the name of Black Lives Matter, as Montez Lee did during a 2020 riot in Minneapolis. The Department of Justice’s sentencing guidelines call for someone who commits a crime like Lee’s to face 20 years in prison. But on the same day a judge sentenced Tarrio, the Department of Justice argued in a sentencing memorandum that, because BLM protesters “felt angry, frustrated, and disenfranchised,” the judge should reduce his sentence to 10 years, which is less than half the sentence length of Tarrio. The New York Times explained that federal prosecutors dismissed BLM charges by the thousands because “protesters were exercising their basic civil rights,” and in most cases that is probably true. But in demanding harsh sentences for nonviolent January 6 rioters and leniency for violent BLM rioters, Biden’s Justice Department is openly engaging in political prosecutions."

"Where federal prosecutors brought charges against 1,146 people connected to the January 6 riot, they only brought charges against 300 people connected to BLM riots across the country. Where at least 10,000 people were arrested in the summer of 2020, some for minor offenses but others for burglary, looting, or assault, in BLM riots, about 2,000 January 6 protesters entered the Capitol Building."
Histrionic Narcissism Behind Unequal Sentences For January 6 And Black Lives Matter Protesters (substack.com)

Biden has completely decimated our Bill of Rights. They aren't even finished arresting people yet for J-6. Yes, this is Whataboutism--that's what the Bill of Rights is about! What about the freedom of speech, what about the right to assemble, what about the right to be secure in their houses and effects and free from unreasonable seizures, what about the right to an impartial jury, what about the right to a speedy trial? Biden's violated them all. He's the insurrectionist (hiding behind his crooked Department of "just us." The irony is he's allowing millions of non-citizens to flood the borders who believe they'll have more rights here than their home country!

Do we need the federal Department of Education?

From time to time, I read that some conservatives want to dump the federal Department of Education because of the poor performance of our public schools. But before moving on that, one should take a look at the National Center for Education Statistics, an arm of that department. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe? And "take a look" is the right phrase because it is a very confusing maze of tables, charts, graphs, essays, compilations, and mismatched years. The latest date of the report is 2023, which actually is for 2021, and various sections within the report contain the latest data for 2016.

I won't get into the weeds, but will note the report's priorities. The second item in the report after demographics (make up of families, race, enrollment) is crime. Not math or science or even attendance. The drop out rate is buried elsewhere--that's the one that uses 2016 data. Do we need drop out data that is 7 years old to hold schools accountable?

The crime rate is more up to date than drop out; it uses 2020-21 data, and the stats are a bit confusing because many students weren't on campus during the pandemic. That said, crime on school campuses had significantly dropped since 2000. So the definition changed by adding in cyber bullying and sexual assaults, moving the statistics back up. Also, school shootings statistics weren't too useful since it includes incidents AT school and AWAY from school. In the tiniest footnotes possible, I read that school shootings include all incidents that guns are brandished or fired on school property or a bullet hits school property for any reason, even if the number hit was zero. It can be any time of day or week or reason, even domestic violence or gangs. All the information on crime in schools in this federal report comes from a private database created by one private citizen, the K-12 School Shooting Database.
Also, the racialists are losing ground in this report. Hispanic (a term coined in 1980 by an HHS employee) enrollment is almost double that of Black in school enrollment, and yet because so many Hispanics are white by anyone's eyeball guess, the activists stirring up trouble about Jim Crow 2.0 will increasingly have to dig up micro-aggressions to vilify whiteness.

The report does include salary information: Annual base salary of full-time public school teachers (10 months) is $66,000--it's $69,000 in latest BLS statistics. Remember, that's base salary, for 10 months.

And one more thing. Abraham Lincoln had one year of public schooling yet became one of the most famous public speakers in the country, and then became the most famous, eloquent and successful president of all time.

The Democrats' War on Trump

The new War on Terror is against President Trump, his lawyers, his donors, and all the voters who voted for him. The Republican leadership in Congress and the Republican candidates are ducking their responsibilities to demand accountability from the federal agencies and goons. If they think they can avoid what is happening to Trump supporters, they don't know Gestapo, NKVD, Stasi, Soviet and Chinese Communist Party history. There've been hundreds of books written about their methods and state trials, open a book!

My Top Gun friends

This is an AI generated explanation of a Top Gun pilot:

  "A Topgun pilot is a highly skilled fighter pilot who has completed the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School, popularly known as Topgun1. The program was founded in 1968 to better train U.S. pilots in advanced dogfight tactics and to improve their combat performance2. Topgun pilots are often hired by the Dutch & American Defense for special training operations3. They are considered to be among the best in their field and are known for their flexibility, ambition, and hands-on mentality3

Steve Browning and Dwight King, friends from Lakeside, were in the Air Force, and both were Top Gun pilots.  Both are strong Christians and recently shared their stories at the evening Praise service at the Pavilion.  Steve lives in Pennsylvania and Dwight lives in Australia, or at least he did until the Pandemic caused him to extend his U.S. vacation. Both families own homes in Lakeside.

Whew! Back in business

Blogger (owned by Google) locked me out! I'm back and ready for business! Here's my Monday, September 4 blog, saved in word processing.

Morning Hymn, September 4, Magnificat, p. 55

Glory to you who safe have kept

And have refreshed me while I slept;

Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,

I may of endless light partake.

Lord, I renew my vows to you;

Scatter my foes as morning dew;

Guard my first springs of thought and will,

And with yourself my spirit fill.

Thomas Ken (1637-1711), the author, wrote 4 vols. of poetry, many of which have become hymns, especially the one we know as "Doxology." He liked that verse so much I found it in at least 4 of his poems! He seemed to like writing about God's care at night, and again the blessings of God in the morning. He was an Anglican bishop who wasn't afraid to challenge either church or king and got in a lot of trouble for being so outspoken, even spent some time in the tower.

 I always read a hymn in the morning and thought of my friend Sonja immediately when I saw today's selection. She was having an anxiety attack about an upcoming medical procedure.

"scatter my foes as morning dew" Let's hope Sonja's foes (worries and anxieties) just disappear with the dew this morning.

https://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-ken/biography/

https://hymnary.org/text/glory_to_thee_who_safe_hast_kept

We were right; where were you?

 

Biden aliases

 I don't know why a vice president would need three aliases unless he were doing something illegal. 5,400 of e-mails using 3 fake names are in the archives, and I'm guessing NARA won't do anything about it even though they attempted to bring down President Trump for legally having classified documents in his possession.

Black women, white masters

In my lifetime, Joe Biden has been the biggest racist in politics, including what he's said publicly and privately, including his policies, and his politics. And now also his crimes, which are being revealed every day. The latest being 3 e-mail accounts using a fake name. So, it's imperative that all his cronies in the media and swamp creatures in the government demean and destroy President Trump, the president that cleared the way for Blacks to make their greatest progress in my lifetime. Ironic in an evil way that black female judges, failed candidates and prosecutors are submitting and doing the bidding of their white masters in Biden's party.

The whole bucket of woke

To paraphrase podcaster Jason Whitlock (who was cheering on black men* who were commenting on the mug shot in solidarity because dual justice standards is something they know): "It's not about Trump." For me, it's also not Trump; it's the whole bucket of woke the Democrats are throwing at us. It's CRT, Covid, the lockdown, the privileged students' loans, climate hysteria, loss of our borders, mutilation of children who've been brainwashed about gender, imported drugs from Mexico via China, corruption in the acronym agencies (FBI, CIA, FDA, CDC), silenced churches, ridicule of patriotism, and men in women's spaces, sports, and make-up, dual standards from media reporting on Trump with screams and protecting Biden with silence. It's all of it. As Jason says, "Trump is an Avatar." (embodiment or personification, as of a principle, attitude, or view of life)

*18% of Black men voted for Trump, record numbers in 2020, exit polls show. https://www.mystateline.com/news/your-local-election-hq/black-men-voted-for-trump-in-record-numbers-exit-polls-show/.

Who is the president of the United States?

 Narcissist, Criminal, Demented. That's who.

Who else could "empathize" with thousands who've lost homes and family members by talking about a kitchen fire in his home, but they saved his car and cat? Who else can have a stream of money from foreign countries--China, Ukraine) funneled to family members, yet never had anything but a government salary? Who else can grab little girls and women on camera and not even understand how the media cover for him? Who else can be a flagrant socialist/fascist and opine about democracy with a straight face?

Once to every man and nation, a great hymn

 I usually have a hymn in my morning devotions, and today it was "Once to every man and nation." I looked through my various hymn resources and couldn't find it, although I was almost marching and humming from the kitchen to the library. I knew it; why couldn't I find it?

That's not the title.  Actually, it's from a poem called "The Present Crisis," written by a very famous 19th century poet, James Russell Lowell, in protest of the Mexican War and slavery, published in 1845. Lowell was an ardent abolitionist.

For me, this hymn from "The Present Crisis" is the current crisis of life vs. death--abortion. Yes, the word slave appears a few times in the poem, but it could be slave to materialism, an ideology or "reproductive freedom."   Death is in every platform and policy of the Democrats, and although Republicans don't write it into their mission statement, many do support abortion. Imagine, a country hoping to succeed in economics, education, technology, safety and health, and virtue by destroying the weak and helpless? It should be our anthem, as it was for abolitionists in the 19th century, and for Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights in the 20th century. It speaks of man and nation, truth and falsehood, darkness and light. The hymn begins with the 5th stanza of the poem, so there is much more. East to west, hut and palace, right and wrong, conscious and unconscious, gain or loss, "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne," and "on the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands." Listen closely.

 https://youtu.be/cSMqesZz3tU?si=alcdkTshtIDxjFal

Also wrote about this in 2020 Collecting My Thoughts: Once to every man and nation when I had a Methodist hymnal on hand.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

 

Cleaning the gutters

We've had some really bad storms this summer--like the one that cost us over $1700 by blowing out the garage door openers and our phones. And the ones clogging up the gutters. Today there are some good ol' boys here to fix my clogged gutters. It's possible that a confederate flag on a cap isn't politically correct these days, but better than the hammer/sickle logo worn on the hearts of Fani Willis and Jack Smith who are interfering with the 2024 election at the direction of the Biden Administration and the Democrat party. I never thought I'd see 1930s Soviet style courts in the USA.

Our most famous election deniers are Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Stacy Abrams, all Southerners. Maybe they are still fighting the Civil War?

"As the Left continues its relentless persecution and prosecution of former President Donald Trump, a pattern has developed. The Democrats have elected black women as the leaders of the Trump witch hunt, and Jason believes it's for a reason. Not only is it a reflection of America’s further descent into a matriarchal culture, but charging black women specifically with the task of taking down Donald, in the eyes of liberals, makes them beyond reproach. “This is a part of the scam that the black women are playing and perhaps voluntarily. Do they realize that they're being used to inoculate these charges against Trump? This is a joke, because if you put black women as the face of it, if you question the legitimacy of them, you can be accused of racism.” Royce White joins “Fearless” to dive into the latest Trump charges and the role that Letitia James, Fani Willis, and Tanya Chutkan are playing as shills for the Democratic Party and the Biden administration." Jason Whitlock podcast, Aug. 18

Hypocrites: A List of Democrats Who Denied The 2000, 2004, and 2016 Presidential Election Results - The Political Insider

House Republicans open probe into Fani Willis ahead of Trump surrender (axios.com)

Fairywren on my table

The calendar bird on my kitchen table today is a Splendid Fairywren. https://animalia.bio/aplendid-fairywren Isn't that a splendid name? We see tiny birds I've been calling wrens (but probably aren't) when we eat dinner on our deck, but they don't look like this although pretty. If we were lunching in Australia, we might see them. Males and females of most species are dimorphic (2 forms), and usually the males are the showiest to attract the females. The girly birds are attracted to the best and biggest show-offs so they can have great babies and continue the breed/ race/ species.

Whether you are a creationist like me, or an evolutionist like most are taught in schools, you know males and females in all human cultures are different so that the race can continue. Until recently, that is. Only the leftist ideologs of the late 20th, and early 21st centuries don't want the human race to continue. Yes, they hate Christians and conservatives, but apparently, they also hate themselves.